Early in 2007, producer Rob Cavallo asked Shinedown frontman Brent Smith about his goals for the band's new album. Smith didn't hesitate.

"I said, 'You know what -- when I'm dead and gone, when everybody in this band has passed or what have you, I want the world to remember this as a record that needed to be made, and that there was a reason for it,' " Smith says. "That was the motivation behind this album.”

"And part of the reason it took so long to make!"

Welcome then to THE SOUND OF MADNESS, Shinedown's third album -- and the Florida rockers' boldest effort to date. Like its two predecessors, 2003's Platinum LEAVE A WHISPER and 2005's Gold US AND THEM, THE SOUND OF MADNESS offers a brave and unsparing look into the soul and psyche amidst a fierce musical attack that, even in its quieter moments, vibrate with the passion, energy and focus of a band with high-minded ideals and limitless ambitions.